It is looking increasing certain that three Irish provinces will join their Celtic cousins in a new league next season.
It is believed that this would be a 12 team competition, running in parallel with the Allied Dunbar Premiership, with a mouth watering end of season play off between the top English and Celtic sides. Negotiations are at an advanced stage and conformation is expected before the Six Nations Championship kicks off on Saturday week.
The composition of the league looks like being seven Welsh clubs, two Scottish 'Super Districts' and three Irish provinces with the fixtures set to dove-tail into the present European and International calendars.
Quite where this would leave the remaining three Welsh clubs in the current Welsh/Scottish league and the remaining Irish province is unclear, although speculation over the past few weeks has suggested that Connacht may be 'scaled down' by the IRFU. The province would then only play the Interprovincial series and then make their players available to the other provinces for the Celtic league games,
Once the format has been agreed the International Management Group, which has been retained by the Welsh Rugby Union will seek to sell the new league to sponsors and television, with the idea of a 'Best of British' end of season play-off particularly appealing to television.
Although it has previously been the case that Ireland was ambivalent towards any cross-border competition it would appear that they have warmed to the idea in the last few weeks, however officials have been reluctant to confirm of the details due to the crucial nature of their discussions. One SRU official said Scottish Rugby Union official, said: "Matters were at a delicate stage. It would be improper for me to make any further comment."